Savaş ve soykırım - War and genocide

Euro ClioThe Russian Expulsion of Circassian Peoples in the 19th Century, European Association of History Educators, 2011, 73 pp.

This documet is prepared by the European Association of History Educators with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation.It provides background information on the expulsion of Circassian peoples by Russia as a part of the project on "Discovering Diversity: An Integrative Approach to the History of Migrants".

It is not a surprise that the Russian authorities keep the history of Circassians under a thick cover of censorship: what happened to this people 145 years ago could be described as the first full-scale ethnic cleansing in modern history. Sochi is known as a popular ex-Soviet resort, the future Olympic-2014 host city on Russia’s Black Sea coast. What else do we know about this region and its past?

The long struggle of the North Caucasian Mountaineers against Russia in the mid-nineteenth century attracted broad European sympathy and admiration. Among prominent writers who championed the cause of the Caucasian Muslims we find Karl Marx, whose writings about this and other freedom struggles of subject peoples in the Russian empire, such as the Poles, were a constant source of embarrassment to the Soviets. Marx and even professional historians described the struggle primarily in terms of the leadership and personality of the Imam Shamil. Shamil is unquestionably one of the most colourful and effective anti-colonial resistance leaders of the nineteenth century.

Even before their final victory over the Circassians the Russian government had decided to deport the majority to the Ottoman Empire and settle their lands with Cossacks. In the fifth of his “Letters from the Caucasus” General Rostislav Fadeev claimed that “Field Commander Prince Bariatinksy, satisfied with the submission of the Lezgins and Chechens, set as the goal of the war in the west Caucasus the unconditional expulsion of the Circassians from their mountain refuges [ . . . ] such was the plan of the war in its last four years.”[1] Fadeev was apparently referring to a meeting of the Caucasus commanders in October 1860 in Vladikavkaz, the subject of which was the resolution of the western Circassian question. According to Dmitry Miliutin, only Filipson argued for a humane approach to the Circassians:

Irma KreitenThe Russian final subjugation of Northwestern Caucasus: Colonial Atrocities and European Responsibilities, Circassian Day in European Parliament: “A Day With Circassians. Federation of European Circassians & Cem Özdemir“, Brussels, 6 October 2008

Why should someone who is not a Circassian himself be interested in Circassian history? Isn’t the study of Circassian history and culture something quite exotic? Should – or could- such a field of knowledge not be left to specialists? I want to seize the opportunity of the Circassian Day in European Parliament in order to argue that, whether we are Circassians or not, Circassian history, and especially 19th century colonization, is something that should concern us all. As our historical pasts are intertwined, this means that, by learning about each other, we also learn something about ourselves.

Isla Rosser-Owen The First ‘Circassian Exodus’ to the Ottoman Empire (1858-1867), and the Ottoman Response, Based on the Accounts of Contemporary British Observers, MA Thesis, Near and Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS, University of London, 2007.

This is a preliminary analysis of the impact of the first Circassian exodus on Ottoman society, assessing the Ottoman response to an unexpected refugee crisis, between 1858 and 1867. It is based primarily on the contemporary accounts of British observers, including consuls, journalists, and the correspondence of other eye-witnesses sent to the Foreign Office or the British Press.

During the last few years considerable interest has been shown by Soviet historians in the British attitude towards the Russian conquest of north Caucasia which, beginning in the early years of the nineteenth century, was finally completed in 1864. Until recently Soviet historians had ascribed a democratic and progressive character to the resistance carried on over many decades by the tribesmen of the area. This resistance was represented as the heroic struggle of peoples fighting for their national independence against the encroachments of Tsarist imperialism.

When, on the 16th of February 1940, at Oxford, John Baddelel died, this book was ready for the press. His good friend Sir Charles Hagberg Wright was asked to write a foreword and was already at work on it when he too died. The finished memoir to his friend which follows was to have been contributed to the pages of Georgica and was probably the last article he ever wrote.

John T. BaddeleyThe Russian conquest of the Caucasus, With Maps, Plans and Illustrations. London, New York, and Calcutta, 1908

When a non-military writer deals with military affairs a word of explanation seems called for. Riding through and through the Caucasus unaccom-panied save by native tribesmen, living with them, accept-ing their hospitality, studying their way of life and character, conforming as far as possible to their customs, noting their superstitions and prejudices, writing down their songs and legends, I became interested, likewise, in all that related to that strife with Russia in which they or their fathers had, almost without exception, taken part. Nor is this surprising ; for the whole country teemed with memories of the fighting days, and wherever we rode, wherever we rested—in walled cities, in villages, on the hills or the plains, in forest depths, in mountain fastnesses —there were tales to tell of desperate deeds, of brave adventures, the battle shock of armies, the slaughter of thousands, the deaths of heroes. Dull, indeed, must he be whose blood is not stirred in a land so varied and beautiful, filled with memories so poignant.

Letters received here from Soukoum Kale state that 7,000 Abasians attacked and captured that town on the 27th July, the Russian garrison at the time numbering only 600 men. A reinforcement of 1,100 Russian troops had subsequently arrived at Soukoum Kale and driven out the insurgents.

Letters from the Circassian coast report popular outbreaks against the Russian authorities at Souanettri in the southern Abasian slopes of the Caucasus, and the Russian consul here has, I learn, received reports from Soukoum kale, more or less confirmatory of these statements.

Robert HardwickeThe Circassian War: As Bearing on the Polish Insurrection, London, February, 1863

There pages had just been concluded, when there was placed in the writer's hands and inedited work entitled "Twelve Years of Diplomacy in Europe:" drawn up in 1842 by M. de BIELKE, late Minister of Denmark at Berlin and London.

The Illustrated London NewsDeputation Of Circassian Chiefs To The Sultan, The Illustrated London News, 24 May 1856

The silence which the Treaty of Peace observes about Circassia has caused great disappointment, which is fully shared by Circassia itself. The simple news that peace had been concluded produced a very strong excitement there. The mountaineers flocked down in thousands to Anapa, where a Turkish Governor, Sefer Pacha, a Circassian by birth, resides.

It would have been interesting, could we have spared the time, to have visited the church of Pitzounda, celebrated as the oldest Christian church in the Caucasus, and situated upon a remarkable promontory, which we steamed past the morning after leaving Ardiller. It is almost exactly similar to that of Souksou, but upon the scale of a cathedral instead of a church. It has been described at length in the elaborate work of Mons. Duboies de Montpereux, whose extensive researches into the history and antiquities of the Caucasian province are a most valuable source of reference. Founded by the Emperor Justinian about the middle of the sixth century, it embraced within is patriarchate nearly all the Caucasian countries.

The following is a note made after a long conversation with a most intelligent Circassian, just arrived from his own country. It contains no fresh intelligence, but may be interesting to some of our readers, in as much as it shows the state of popular feeling in that part of the world.

To understand the question relative to the Vixen, it is necessary to be acquainted with the present state of the coast of the Black Sea, more particularly as respects the country of the Abasians. The Abasians are composed of about forty thousand families. They inhabit the western side of the Caucasus, and the valleys which descend from that mountain range towards the sea. Behind them, in the glens and on the summits of those mountains, dwell the Circassians. These Abasians are the descendants from the ancient inhabitants of the country; they were independent of the Emperors of Byzantium, as they have since been of the Turks ; at most they occasionally paid a tribute. Nevertheless, they became Christians at the instance of the emperors, and received Islamisms from the hands of the sultans.

This decleration, which appeared some weeks since in the "Portfolio," is one of a series of state documents, the publication of which has excited no little of both curiosity and alarm. The genuineness of these documents may be disputed in some instances perhaps. With regards to the "declaration" which I insert, it must be acknowledged that it carries truth upon the face of it: that if really a paper issuing from any portion of the people of the nation it relates to, it is a composition of inimitable simplicity; and that, supposing it to have been written in London or Paris, either by the editor of this English journal or by any Parisian homme de lettres, it is a piece of inimitable art; and, written where, or by whom it may, the only question ought to be, whether the facts be true, and the sentiments ascribed to the people referred to, faithfully represented.